


The Suspender Man

by jootaroo



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-25 20:33:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 20,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17128271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jootaroo/pseuds/jootaroo
Summary: The Jon runs off after messing up big time, and hopes to find a new life elsewhere. (aka another what-happened-to-The-Jon-fanfic)--Who in this chat old enough to remember Steam Powered Giraffe?? I posted this on fanfic.net but I'm posting it here bc I'm on an spg binge rn. ALSO I updated it so it's mostly canon compliant now.





	1. Wired Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> HEY so uhhhhh I wrote this when I was 14 and really really into spg and I posted this on fanfic.net around then but uhhhhhh lore changes and stuff made me kind of abandon it for like 5 years but I've been listening to spg again and figured eh why not put it on AO3 it's still pretty good  
> (I mean I still wrote it when I was 14 and u can TOTALLY tell but whatever)
> 
> EDIT: OH also big disclaimer this takes place before Rabbit's transition obviously, but also I like, WROTE it before her transition too. Later there's a timeskip and we see her post-transition but that's why in these early chapters I use he/him pronouns. It's super weird to read the beginning chapters of this now tho and I don't like it but idk a real solution since this literally takes place in the past.

The Jon was walking into Walter Manor after a long tour with his brothers and the humans. But he did not smile as he usually did when he returned home. The Jon hung his head as he walked out of the Steam Powered Giraffe tour bus. He felt like crying, but he had already cried so much that day, his oil reserves had probably run dry.

The Jon knew he had messed up. He had almost gotten Michael killed. Michael, his best friend in the world.

The incident had happened right after a show that had gone particularly sour. Nothing had really gone  _ wrong _ per se, but no one was really into the performance that day, and they were all pretty grouchy. The Jon had decided to try and cheer everyone up by making them laugh. Laughter was the best medicine, right? He had decided to use his super robot strength to juggle all of the instruments at once. And he had managed to do it too, at least for a little while. He managed to juggle a guitar, a drum, a mandolin, an accordion, and a kazookaphone all at once. While he could do it, he looked rather silly. Everyone was laughing, and The Spine was shouting his usual "Be careful!" when it happened. The Jon tripped over a rope and broke all of the instruments (save the kazookaphone, which was made of plastic). He knew he was already in big trouble, but it only got worse when he realized that the rope he had tripped on was one of the ropes that was holding up the large lights hanging from the ceiling of the stage. A light that just happened to be right above the one-man-band himself, Michael Reed. The Spine, with his extremely fast reflexes, managed to push Micheal out of the way before the light could squash everyone’s favorite human. The light did however, fall on The Spine. And despite not being damaged, everyone could tell that The Spine was, literally, steaming with anger. He cracked his jaw and pointed at The Jon.

"Bus. Now.”

The Jon stumbled to his feet and walked slowly to the tour bus, head hung low. As soon as everyone finished packing up, The Spine called The Jon into the back of the bus to give him a stern talking to. In all of The Jon's 115 years of life, he had never heard The Spine sound so disappointed in him. The Jon rode out the remaining hours on the bus in an unusual stunned silence, occasionally letting black oily tears fall down his face. No one dared acknowledge him, despite a few pitiful, and slightly annoyed, glances.

When the band finally arrived back at Walter Manor, The Jon was the first one off the bus. The Spine and Michael shoved their way past him to unload the gear, Sam followed soon afterward, shaking his head sadly. The Jon remained where he was, seemingly frozen in place.

Steve Negrete, getting off the bus, noticed and walked over to the golden bot. He put his hand on The Jon's shoulder. "Don't let it get to you, pal. The Spine and Michael...they're just upset. They're still your family.”

The Jon nodded slowly in acknowledgement but his glum expression didn't change. Steve looked a little disappointed and  walked over to Rabbit.

"I'm worried about him." Steve said.

Rabbit looked at his younger brother. "Who The Jon? Nah, he's just pouting. He’ll go back to being his goofy annoying self by tomorrow. T-t-trust me, I've been his brother for over a hundred years, I know how he works."

"You sure? He just spent the entire trip in silence, like he was in some sort of depressing trance. He didn't even ask 'are we there yet' at all!"

Rabbit looked over at his brother. He was still just standing there, just staring at the exterior of the manor. Steve was right, he did look particularly upset today. "All right, I'll talk to him."

Rabbit walked over to his brother. "Hey Jon, how ya holdin up?"

The Jon looked at his brother, with empty eyes. Rabbit felt a deep sense of pity, but also felt deeply uncomfortable. "So ya m-m-messed up and The Spine yelled at you, so what? If I had a dollar for every time that had happened to me, I'd have...a lot of dollars."

The Jon nodded "Okay." he said as walked into the manor and up to his room and went straight into stasis. Rabbit watched as his brother left and then walked over to The Spine.

"Hey," Rabbit nudged him.

"Not now Rabbit. I'm not in the mood."

"What did you say to The Jon? He seems pretty upset..."

"I just told him what anyone would tell someone who broke four instruments and almost killed Michael."

Rabbit scratched the back of his head. "Yeah...but you can be kind of harsh, and it  _ was _ an accident..."

The Spine gave Rabbit a chilling glare with his bright green photoreceptors.

"What he did was dangerous. Michael could have died!"

"Aw don't get your c-c-circuits in a twist, nothing happened." Rabbit lightly punched The Spines arm. "That's why Pappy put those lightning fast reflexes in ya anyway."

"Pappy didn't give them to me. I got them in my government upgrade in 56'."

The mood suddenly turned a bit awkward. The conversation always did when Spine talked about his 56’ upgrade.

"Oh." Rabbit gave him a worried glance but let it go and walked away.


	2. Out in the Rain

**Chapter 2: Out in the Rain**

The Jon was pulled out of stasis that night to the sound of thunder. He was scared of thunder. He awoke with a start and let out a small cry. He looked around. The room was pitch black. He crawled out of his bed and scampered down stairs to try and seek some comfort from his brothers.

Usually when The Jon was awoken by thunder, he would run downstairs to where his brothers were waiting. Rabbit would tell him jokes and stories to lift his spirits, and The Spine would pretend to make him some hot chocolate because he couldn't drink real hot chocolate.

But not this time.

The Jon reached the bottom of the stairs, and looked around. This room was also very dark. He could just barely make out various photographs on the walls. All the eyes staring at him in the dark were beginning to freak out The Jon. Lightning illuminated the room for a split second, followed by a loud crash of thunder, causing The Jon to jump. He walked slowly to the kitchen. His brothers weren't there either.

As The Jon walked down a nearby corridor, he noticed some shadows and the subtle ticks of his brothers' clockwork around the corner. He was about to call out to them when he remembered what he had done earlier that day. They were probably still mad at him. The Jon remained where he stood and contemplated just going back to bed and waiting out the storm, despite his fear.

He peeked around the corner, hoping no one could see the dim blue glow of his photoreceptors. He was surprised to find that not only his older brothers, but Peter Walter the sixth in the room as well.

Rabbit and The Spine sat uncomfortably in their chairs. Another quiet clap of thunder rang in the distance, causing them to tense look around nervously.

The Jon was definitely surprised to see them flinch at the thunder. It had never occurred to him just why his brothers were always already downstairs waiting for him in the middle of the night. It had never occurred to him that the storm had woken them up too. It had never occurred to him that his brothers were just as scared of thunder as he was.

The Spine straightened his tie and began to speak. "Let's get down to business. We need to discuss what to do about The Jon."

Peter and Rabbit nodded. The Jon's eyes widened. He also noticed Rabbit looked very uneasy, more so than The Spine. As if this wasn't a conversation he wanted to have. He cleared his throat. "W-w-well, what can we do? You can't just change how he is! And it was an accident after all..."

The Spine looked down at Rabbit. "His 'accident' nearly got Michael killed. And I'm not just talking about what happened today. Lately he has been quite a handful. He's a danger to himself and everyone around him--"

"No he's not! How can you say that Th' Spine? About your own brother!" Rabbit snapped.

The Spine put his hand on his shoulder. "I care about The Jon just as much as you do, but I'm just trying to think of what's best for him."

The Jon did not like where this conversation was going.

The Spine turned his neon glare to Peter. "Rabbit and I know from experience that a crossed wire or two can cause us to act strangely. So we were wondering if you could try to...well, fix him. You know, make sure his behavior is not caused by him being...broken."

"Th' Jon doesn't need fixin!" Rabbit shouted.

"Rabbit--"

"What if I did something like that, huh? Would you want to have me ‘fixed’ too?"

"You know The Jon is different from the two of us, Rabbit. Pappy made him much later, when his mental state had already...deteriorated, somewhat. It's as if he just...has a different way of thinking. Which can get him into trouble. So if he's broken, I just want to fix him."

Peter finally spoke. "You know I've tried to fix him. But The Spine is right, The Jon is different from you two. He doesn't run on the same technology. Hell, there is no technology, he runs on a hot dog and a koi fish that should have died long ago. He has a blue matter core like you two, but that's it. He shouldn't be running at all."

Peter's comment felt like a knife in The Jon’s heart. Shouldn't be running at all? What did he mean by that? He was just as alive as Rabbit and The Spine!

The Spine raised an eyebrow, "So what do you suggest we do? We can't just let him continue to have his 'accidents' until he or someone else gets hurt."

"Well you know, we could always just....shut him down. Until we think of something else to do." Peter said with no feeling in his voice. The Spine raised both eyebrows and Rabbit looked horrified.

The Jon stepped back in shock and covered his mouth. Another loud clap of thunder caused him to fall backwards onto the floor with a large clunk. Peter and the two bots turned around with a start.

"Jon?" Rabbit said with shock and horror in his voice. He was not supposed to hear that. Rabbit flung up from his chair and began to walk towards him, to explain the situation, but before he could get anywhere near him, The Jon panicked and ran back upstairs to his room and locked the door behind him.

"Jon!" He heard The Spine and Rabbit's muffled voices calling out to him from behind the door. The Jon ignored them and curled up on the floor and sobbed quietly to himself. After a little while, the voices of his brothers subsided, and The Jon was left alone, with only the sound of rain dripping on the windows.

_ They want to turn me off,  _ The Jon thought in horror,  _ they said I shouldn't even be running. I’m going to collect dust for decades just like all the other bots the Walters couldn’t fix…..  _

The Jon took a deep breath in a desperate attempt to calm himself. He decided that he wouldn't let them turn him off. He’s watched it happen to brothers before, and he wasn’t about to go quietly  He would leave, he would run far away from there.

The Jon quickly stood up and changed his clothes. He put on his favorite red suspenders and top hat and scribbled a little goodbye note in crayon on a scrap of paper. He gathered a few tools, a can of oil, and a roll of duct tape (for repairs) and placed them inside a small bag tied to his back. He filled his boiler to the brim with water before quietly slipped out of his room and down the stairs.

The Jon silently looked up at all of the pictures on the walls. They were mostly pictures of the various Walter Manor residents and family friends, as well as a few significant events. He looked at all the pictures of himself and his brothers. Of before and after the Great War, of various concerts, and a fair few from that fateful day when someone decided to give Rabbit a camera for Christmas. They all looked so happy together. But...in almost every picture he was in, The Jon was doing something that he shouldn't be doing. Had his brothers always been this irritated with him? But surely he had done nothing worse then some of the things Rabbit had done! But...Rabbit was smarter than him. And stronger than him. And had a better voice than him. And was better than him. The Jon never noticed any of this before, or else he wouldn't have ever done anything! The Jon sighed. Too late now, he supposed. He had better get going. As he began to walk away, one photo in the corner of his eye caught his interest. As he looked at the photograph closely he realized that it was of him and Pappy. It was definitely of his early days, perhaps even his first day after his completion. The Jon was standing there, with a goofy smile and Pappy's arm wrapped around his shoulders. The Jon took it off the wall. Pappy never minded his antics. Pappy always loved him just the way he was. He stuffed the photograph into his bag and walked through the back doorway, looking back only once.

It was still raining when he walked out into the garden. He was waterproof, for the most part, but he was still glad he brought that can of oil or his joints would be squeaking all the around the country. His brothers would catch him in an instant. The Jon was about to depart from his home of over a century, when he stopped to walk over to the Walter cemetery. He sighed as he located Peter Walter the first's grave.

"Hey Pappy...how ya doing? Well, I guess not that well, you bein’ dead and all...but, I'm gonna be leavin for a while. Why? Oh, no reason, it's just..." He sighed. "Why'd you build a broken robot like me Pappy? Why couldn't you have made me like Rabbit an' The Spine? I always knew they were your favorites. Why’d you go and make me all weird?" The grave, of course, remained silent. The Jon sighed again, “Ah I know it’s not your fault, Pappy. You loved all of us. I just wish I was a little bit more...normal.”

The Jon of course knew the grave couldn't answer him, but that didn’t stop him from wishing that the ghost of Peter A. Walter the first to pop out and tell him that everything was going to be alright. He sat there for a few minutes more in silence before getting up. He would have to be long gone before morning when the others would realize that he had left. The rain ran down his face and made him shiver. He plucked a feather from his hat and stuck it in the dirt in front of Peter Walter's grave before going on his way, into the night.

\--

As the Walter Manor disappeared from sight, it began to sink in that The Jon was never going back. He had no money, no home, no family, and nowhere to go. He wasn't even human. The Jon knew that running away like this was a very bad idea, but there was no turning back now. If he had been with his brothers, The Jon would have let out a loud cry and panicked while his brothers made a plan. They would then yell at him for being crazy and reassure him that he was just overreacting and that everything would be just fine and then make fun of his stupid face.

But The Jon wasn't with his brothers.

After a while of walking, The Jon sat under a tree, shivering and soaking wet. Why had Pappy built him with temperature sensors? The Jon was probably a few miles from Walter Manor by now, and completely lost. There was a loud clap of thunder, and he jumped. The Jon was scared, cold, wet, and lonely. He contemplated what to do next, but couldn't think of anything. He could probably go to Michael's house, except, Michael would no doubt still be mad at him, and probably take him back to Walter Manor. And besides, he wasn't entirely sure he even knew where Michael lived.

The Jon looked at the sky. Whatever he was to do, it would have to wait until tomorrow, as it was probably around 3am, maybe later. The Jon rested his head down on a rock and closed his eyes, trying to slip into stasis until the sun came up and he could think of a plan.

\--

Rabbit awoke the next day fairly early. He didn't get much sleep that night, worrying about The Jon. Rabbit wouldn't let Peter power down The Jon, he just wouldn't. The Steam Man Band had been together for over a century, and there was no way he was letting them get separated now. Sure, The Jon wasn't the easiest bot in the world to understand, but Rabbit would promise keep him out of trouble. He'd keep a constant eye on him if he had to. Anything to keep Peter from shutting him down. He got out of his bed and walked over to The Jon's room. He knocked on the door. "H-h-h-hey Jon, listen, I'm not letting them do anything to you, so don't worry.”

Silence.

"Come on buddy, I'm not mad at ya, you don't have to ignore me."

Silence again.

"Don't tell me you're s-still asleep!" He opened the door and saw The Spine sitting on The Jon's bed, with his  head in his hands. His coat was rumpled, and his hat was on the floor beside him. "Wha--"

"He's gone."

Rabbit's heart dropped. "Wh-what do you mean gone?"

The Spine looked up at his older brother. He looked tired. Perhaps like he had been...crying? No, The Spine didn't cry. No matter how bad things got, The Spine didn't cry. "He overheard us talking about shutting him down and he left some time last night. Damnit, I wasn't actually going to let Peter go through with it!"

Rabbit didn't say a word, but instead an odd sounding sputtering erupted from his boiler. The Spine put his head back in his hands and tossed a note at Rabbit. "He left this."

Rabbit picked up the note and read it:

Dear Brothers,

I overheard you talking to Peter last night about shutting me down because I'm dangerous. I know I make mistakes and I'm clumsy, but I don't mean to be, honest! I also heard about how I shouldn't even be alive in the first place and that I'm "different". So I guess Pappy just messed up when he made me and didn't have the heart to shut me off, huh? Well I decided that I don't want to be shut down, so I'm leaving. 

Don't worry though! Well, that is, if you were worrying in the first place. I am pretty scared of this big scary world full of scary things, but I brought some duct tape so if I get hurt I'll be okay. And I won't hurt anyone!! I promise!!!!

Goodbye,

The Jon

As The Spine saw Rabbit read the note, he quietly whispered  "He's not going to last a week out there on his own."

Rabbit's face twisted in horror as he realized the situation. He ran out of the room yelling "JON!" all throughout the manor, waking up everyone. After The Spine had explained the situation, everyone was just as upset as Rabbit, and began searching the manor and the surrounding areas.

"Look!" Walter Girl Paige called out from outside. She came inside waving a feather above her head. Rabbit ran over to her and took the feather from her hand. "W-w-where did you find this?

"Over on Peter Walter the first's grave!"

Rabbit looked down at the wet and muddy blue feather that once adorned the side of his beloved brothers hat. Almost at that same moment he noticed an empty space on the wall where the picture of Pappy and The Jon on his completion day used to have been. He touched the empty space on the wall, "He's really not coming back is he..."

Black tears of oil streamed down Rabbit's face as The Spine pulled him into a hug. The Spine rarely hugged his brothers. He wasn't really a "hug" type of person. But right now was different. Right now Rabbit needed a hug.

"Come on, let's go look for him."


	3. A One-Way Road to My Future!

Michael walked into Walter Manor later that day for practice. He knew something was different when he first entered. The Jon did not run down to greet Michael as he usually did. Michael sighed, perhaps he was still upset about yesterday. Michael, being a fairly chill and forgiving person, was already over it. However, knew that The Jon was very upset about almost hurting him, so Michael continued though the manor looking for The Spine and Rabbit.

Michael soon found that no one from the band was home, automaton or otherwise, so he made his way to the kitchen to make himself a sandwich. He wished that one of the Peters had made a robot that made sandwiches. All these robots and not a single one that made sandwiches. What a shame.

When Michael entered the kitchen, he found Paige dusting. She looked a bit sad.

"Hey," Michael said as he got himself some water from the sink. "Where is everyone? We were suppose to practice today."

Paige looked at Michael sympathetically. "They're all out looking for The Jon. He ran away last night." Michael choked on his water and began coughing. "What? Why? What happened?"

Paige shrugged. "I'm not sure. He couldn't stand having almost have hurt you, and if that wasn't enough he overheard Peter say something about turning him off."

"What?" Michael said as rage boiled inside of him. "You wanted to  _ turn him off  _ for what happened yesterday? Look at me! I'm fine! It was an accident!"

"Whoa, Mike, calm down! We weren't actually going to go through with it! You know Peter, he was just joking around with the idea, like how The Spine tells him 'oh that was good Jon, you can stay in the band' after he sings a song. The Jon just jumped to conclusions!"

"Yeah but, you know how The Jon is, and imagine if someone just joked about possibly killing you? No wonder he ran away!" Michael took a deep calming breath as he looked out the window. He stared out into the forest. The Jon was out there somewhere, scared probably, alone, having nowhere to go. The Jon had been his best friend for years. He had always been there to make him smile, whenever he needed it. He had even taught him how to play the guitar when he was younger. Michael searched for things he could have done to prevent this. He should have kept him from running away. He should have gone after him when he ran up to his room after they came home from the show. He should have comforted him when he was crying on the bus. He should have stopped him from juggling those instruments. He shouldn't have been standing under that damn light.

Michael sighed in frustration and worry, trying to to panic. The Jon was gone, so he guessed he was just gonna have to find him. "I'll be back" He said to Paige as he grabbed his keys and went out to search for his friend.

\--

The Jon awoke the next morning, under that same tree, no warmer then he was when he went into stasis. Judging by the position of the sun, it was about 8 or 9 am. The Jon didn't get much sleep that night. He sat up. His neck joint was stiff and his clothes were soaked and caked with mud. He wanted to go home.

This was not the first time The Jon had run away. Every few years, someone would yell at him, and he would run out of Walter Manor, crying. Spend the next few days at a friend's house, or just out in the woods. However, The Jon had always known in the back of his mind that he was going to go back eventually. But this time was different. The Jon wasn't going back. No matter what happened to him, he couldn't go back and let Peter shut him down.

As he was oiling his neck joint, a bird flew on the ground next to him. The Jon smiled, at least he could have some company, at least for a bit. He had always had a way with animals.

"Hello!" The Jon called out to the bird. The bird tweeted something back.

"Who, me?" The Jon's smiled disappeared.

"Yeah, I am a long way from home." The bird tweeted some more.

"Oh yes! I am a member of Steam Powered Giraffe! Or, ex member, now..."

"Yeah, you could say they kicked me out."

"No, I don't really have a plan, or a family, or anywhere to go...any ideas?"

"No? Well...thanks anyway I guess."

The Jon took a deep sigh. He wished he had brought his guitar when he left, he could use a little music to take his mind off things. But, it wasn't like he could go back.

Just then The Jon stopped.  _ What am I doing?  _ he thought,  _ There's no use in moping around like this!  _ He stood up and puffed out his chest.

"I've got a one way-ticket to destiny! A one-way road to my future! A two-way love with--" The Jon stopped singing, "Well, I don't really have a special girl, but that's okay."

The Jon gasped, "Wait, that's it! I'll take a train somewhere far away from here and start my life over!" The Jon grabbed his little bag and starting running and didn't stop until he entered a nearby town.

When he wandered into town, he remembered that seeing a robot in the street was not exactly "normal" occurrence, but thankfully no one did anything other then give him a few odd looks. He began looking for the train station.

The Jon scratched his head. It was the 21st century now. They still had trains, right? He scratched his head and pondered, until he bumped into a women, causing her to stumble over and drop her purse.

"Hey watch it!" She cried. "Oh!" The Jon was stunned from the women's sudden appearance. He bent over and picked up her purse. "Terribly sorry miss! I wasn't looking where I was going!" He handed the purse to her and helped her up.

"Oh it's okay, I suppose, no harm done--" The women looked at The Jon and thought for a moment. "Hey, I know you! You and your friends used to play at Balboa park a few years ago! What happened?"

The Jon was shocked. He had forgotten that most of the San Diego locals knew who he was.

"Oh, uh, we left to play at the San Diego zoo for a while, then started touring."

The women's eyes widened. "Really? Huh, I knew you guys were good...so you're really robots?"

The Jon smirked. "Yep. 100% made of metal."

The women beamed. "Haha awesome! Which one were you again? I always forgot your name. Sorry!"

The Jon was hurt. But that was exactly who he was, right? The weird younger brother of the members of the band that people actually cared about. Just another robot to please the eye and fill space. Easily replaceable.

"The Jon. I'm The Jon." He said, hiding the hurt in his voice.

The stranger smiled and did a little curtsy. "Oh thats right! Well, nice to finally meet you personally, The Jon. I'm Erin. And if you don't mind me asking, what happened to you? You're quite a mess. Don't tell me that just because you're a famous singing robot you don't clean yourself up every now and then."

The Jon's smile disappeared. He didn't feel like telling a stranger his entire situation, or explaining why he was covered in mud and oil.

"Well, to tell the truth, I’m a bit lost right now, and just got out of wandering through the forest!"

He hated lying, but it seemed to be the only option at the moment.

Erin gasped. "That's terrible! Do you know where they are?"

The Jon nodded. "I was suppose to take a train to meet them, but I can't seem to find it."

"Oh, you can't find the train station? Why it's just over there! Here, I'll help you out a little." Erin took a small rag out from her purse and wiped some of the mud and oil from his face. When she had finished, she pulled out a small comb and began to brush out his golden hair. The Jon smiled at her.  _ This is nice,  _ he thought,  _ Erin seems like a nice lady, even though she couldn't remember my name. _

When she had sufficiently combed out all the knots in his wig, she took his hand and led him to a large building a few blocks away. "Here's the train station. Can you take it from here?"

The Jon was very frightened. He wasn't entirely sure he could take it from there. He gulped.

"Hey," Erin looked at him, "You okay?"

"Well, not really. I've never been apart from my brothers for very long. Except for in the wars...I'm just, a little scared."

Erin gave him a reassuring pat on the arm. "Don't worry. I'm sure you'll be fine! You're going to see your brothers really soon!"

"But what if I mess up? I always mess up..."

"Well you just have to keep your head up! And don't worry! You'll be fine?"

"You think so?"

"Of course! Now go on!"

He was about to walk in the train station but got down on one knee and kissed Erin's hand. "Thank you for this Miss Erin! If you ever need anything from Steam Powered Giraffe or the fair city of Biscuit Town, just tell them about this! You'll get a free signed CD! Just ask!"

"Oh! Well, thank you! But I don't want any free things! It's a pleasure to help!"

The Jon smiled as he stood up and hugged her before quickly running off.

"Good luck!" Erin waved as The Jon ran into the train station.


	4. Oh it's such a shame

As The Jon walked into the station, he keep very close to the walls to avoid being noticed. He looked around.  Pretty soon, he located a train about to leave. He was just going to have to find a way on. He didn't have any money, so buying a ticket was definitely out. He doubted they would sell one to a robot in the first place. Looks like he would be sneaking on. According to what Rabbit had always told him, there was always an empty unlocked box car for the hero to hide in, so he should be fine.

Luckily, this was a very dimly lit train station, so if he didn't draw too much attention to himself, no one would notice him. He was just glad that he wasn't The Spine in this situation. Being a tall automaton made of bright titanium alloy would get him caught in an instant. He followed the crowd to where the train was letting people on. However, he knew he probably shouldn't get on there. Security would no doubt be pretty tight and there were a lot of people over there.

When no one was looking, he approached a box car that seemed to be for storage. Perfect! The Jon turned the door handle to find that it was...locked. The Jon frowned. Rabbit had said that they were always unlocked. He rolled his eyes and used his robot strength to break the lock. He didn't want to do that, mainly because it would increase his chances of getting caught, but he didn't have time to pick the lock.

Once inside the car, The Jon found that it was...not empty. In fact it was pretty crowded with boxes and crates. The Jon thought for a moment wondered if Rabbit had ever actually been on a train. The Jon maneuvered his way around some boxes and sat down on the floor. Now all he could do was wait. He tried to control and squeaking or puffs of steam until he was sure that no one was around.

After a while, he felt the train start to move, and The Jon couldn't help but get a little excited. He was almost there! He could just go to wherever this train was headed, sing in a place like Balboa Park and make a few bucks, and live out his life there, with nice fans of his like Miss Erin. This was exactly what the song One-Way Ticket had prepared him for!

The Jon was so excited he let out a small giggle and heard a sound nearby. He quickly silenced himself and looked around, hoping that he had not just given himself away. It was then that the tiny brown body of a rat scuttled toward him. The Jon relaxed. "Hello there little guy, how are you?" The rat sniffed him and make a few squeaking noises and The Jon smiled. 

Then The Jon looked around. Where was he going anyway? He examined the walls. One of them had a map, with a few locations outlined in red pen. One end of the line was on his home town of San Diego. Following the trail of pen, it seemed like the train was headed for...New Orleans?

"Oh! Well...okay. Well, at least one will find me there." The Jon muttered to himself. New Orleans was...far. Farther then he had planned to go. But at least no one will ever find him there, so he guessed that it was alright.

The Jon thought for a moment. Had he ever been to New Orleans? Yes, he vaguely recalled, once, over thirty years ago. He couldn’t remember the trip well though, which he thought was strange. But, he decided to brush it off and not let it bother him.

The Jon attempted to adjust the position of his legs. He was sitting a bit of an uncomfortable position, amongst the many boxes and crates. And this was probably going to be a pretty long train ride.

He quietly sang One-Way Ticket to himself as he proceeded to make a little box fort around himself. He smiled to himself as he sang, maybe this would all work out after all. 

\--

The band had returned to Walter Manor after looking for The Jon later that night after it had gotten dark. Rabbit had remained silent for most of that time, feeling sad and bitter. He was currently was seated in a chair in a table across from The Spine and Peter. They were once again going to discuss The Jon. His eyes were glued to the floor.

"So Rabbit--" The Spine began.

"We have to find him." Rabbit stated. He was not willing to debate this.

"Rabbit," The Spine adjusted his fedora. "I know how you feel, believe me I do. The Jon was my brother too, and I'm just as worried about him as you are, and trust me, we are going to keep looking for him, but eventually we have to face facts. The Jon isn't going to last very long out there by himself."

Rabbit was silent.

"And, we still have to think about the band. How are we going to do the shows without The Jon? We can't just stop performing until we find him."

"Why not?"

"Because, people will question why. And we can't tell them The Jon is missing, the government would have Peter's neck if one of his 'killer robots' were on the loose." Peter remained silent, but nodded in agreement. Rabbit continued to stare at the floor.

"So what do you want to do then, eh?"

The Spine sighed. “Outfit one of the other Walter automatons with singing and dancing software.”

Rabbit's head snapped up. “What! You can’t do that!”

“Come now Rabbit--most of our brothers and sisters are virtually the same as us in levels of technological advancement, they could easily take The Jon’s spot in the band until we find him.” He paused, “But I was thinking...maybe it’s time to bring back Hatchworth.”

Rabbit’s face went from sadness to confusion, "H-H-Hatchworth? But he's been in the vault for decades! Isn’t he like, really unstable?"

"Yes, well, Peter has been doing a lot of research on blue matter energy lately, and he thinks that he could probably fix him."

Peter turned to Rabbit and then The Spine. "I'll...see what I can do."

Rabbit flashed Peter and The Spine a painful glance, and quietly stood up and walked away, without a word. The Spine looked at Peter, "I'll go after him. In the meantime, I guess you should start working on Hatchworth."

Peter nodded as The Spine followed Rabbit up to his room.

The Spine found Rabbit was sitting on his bed, clutching his knees. Rabbit looked up at his brother, black tears welling up in his eyes.

"We can't just replace him. The Jon is our brother."

The Spine sat down next to him. "I know. And we are going to keep looking for him. But Hatchworth is our brother too, and it was a mistake to leave him in the vault for this long in the first place. We need to get him out."

Rabbit did have to agree with that. He did miss Hatchworth in these almost 80 years that he had been in the vault. But...he can't just replace The Jon. "Hatchworth's not like The Jon. It wouldn’t be the same."

Rabbit looked The Spine in the eye with his mismatched photoreceptors. "And I just want to find him."

The Spine sighed. "I do too, Rabbit. I do too."

Rabbit looked up at his brother, a strange new emotion filling his eyes "Do you?"

The Spine raised an eyebrow, "Of course. He's my brother as well."

Rabbit smiled, although his smile was broken and desperate, "I've known The Jon ever since he was built. I was there when he first powered on, I was there when he learned how to sing, I was there when he first got his name, and I was there in all of those wars too, right beside him. And I'll be damned if I'm gonna let you get in the way of finding him!"

"Rabbit, you forget who was  _ also  _ beside him during those wars. I'm just as much of his brother as you are. What are you saying?"

Rabbit stood up, suddenly full of rage. He had wanted someone to blame, and he had just found them. "You were the one that wanted to 'fix' him! You were the one that yelled at him! Do you really want him back, or are you glad he's gone?"

The Spine grabbed Rabbit's arm in an attempt to calm him. Rabbit could get a bit...irrational when he was upset. "Rabbit, that's silly. Of course I want him back!"

"This is all your fault!" Rabbit broke free from The Spine's grasp and and pushed him slightly backwards. "Rabbit, stop it. You're upset and just looking for someone to blame. You--"

"Shut up!" Rabbit yelled as he slammed his fist into The Spine's face. The Spine stumbled backwards and hit the wall with a fair amount of force, causing it to crack slightly. The Spine slid to the floor and put his hands over his face in pain. He let out a low, "Nnng..."

Rabbit, suddenly realizing what he had done, rushed over to his brother and knelt down beside him. "Spine! Oh my god--I'm so sorry, are you okay? Don’t tell Peter--here, you can hit me back! Can you hear me? Spine? Please, speak to me!" Rabbit slowly moved his brother's hands away from his face to reveal oil seeping out of deep cracks in his titanium face. Rabbit's eyes widened,

"Peter!" He screamed and ran downstairs to look for him.


	5. It's a Scary Scary World

The next day, Michael wandered through the streets of the nearby. He had been combing the entire San Diego area for the past two days, asking various people if they had seen The Jon, but was having little success.

"No? Oh, okay...Thanks anyway." Michael gave a little smile a walked away from the person he had asked. He sighed. He was getting a little disheartened. It had been a little over 24 hours since he began his search, and The Jon was probably long gone by now. But he couldn't give up. He had to find his friend. 

Suddenly, someone tapped him on the arm. Michael turned around to see a women.

"Excuse me, but are you Michael Reed?" She asked. Michael rolled his eyes. He had hoped that the whole not being a robot thing would protect him from getting recognized by fans, but apparently not.

"Er, yes, but I'm kinda busy right now, so I can't sign anything, sorry."

"Oh no it's not that! I heard you were looking for The Jon! Well I saw him yesterday morning!"

Michael smiled. "Really? Where? Did he say where he was going? Is he okay?"

The women bit her lip. "Um...if you don't mind me asking, is The Jon lost?" Michaels face sunk. "Well, yeah. He ran away yesterday and I'm trying to find him.

Erin gasped. "Oh no! He must have lied to me! He told me that he needed to go to the train station to meet you guys, so I took him there." She looked down, "I'm sorry I helped him get away."

"No, it's okay, really! There was a big misunderstanding, so he ran away. You see...yesterday, I almost got hurt, and The Jon blamed himself. And since everyone was so mad at him, he just left."

"That's terrible! Well, I saw him this morning, he said that he had just spent the night in the forest. He was a mess! He said that he was meeting you guys somewhere, so I showed him to the train station."

"Did you see where he went from there?"

"Yes, actually! I wanted to make sure he found his way alright, so I stayed a the train station after he thought that I left. I saw him get on a train headed for New Orleans!"

Michael gave a small smile and scratched his head. One the one hand, he had a lead to where The Jon might be. On the other hand, that lead led him to New Orleans, which was practically across the country. But, it was better than nothing.

"Thanks a lot! What did you say you name was?"

"Oh, I'm Erin!"

Michael smiled and waved to Erin as he ran as fast as he could to his car. "Thank you Erin! I have to tell the others!" Erin waved back and half-smiled as he ran off.

\--

The Jon awoke from stasis the next day, still inside his box fort in a train car meant for storage. He yawned and looked around. The train would probably be reaching New Orleans pretty soon.

He had found a little rat to talk to, and he was feeling a lot better ever since he got on the train. He had a plan, so he didn't feel like he was just wandering anymore. His only dilemma right now was that he wished he had something to do. He had already been on the train for almost a day, and he wouldn't admit it to him, but the rat was a very bad conversationalist.

The Jon stood up, stretched a bit, and walked over to the train car door. The Jon peeked into the other train cars. To his surprise, most of them were wearing bright colors and had masks.  _ Hm...  _ The Jon thought,  _ That's odd...Halloween isn't anytime around now...Oh! We're going to New Orleans, they must be dressed like that for Mardi Gras I guess? _ The Jon scratched his chin. He’d never been to Mardi Gras, but he’s heard about it on the news, and it sounded fun, so he supposed he could tag along and see what exactly it was. He could probably sing there too if he somehow managed to get ahold of a guitar. And no one would mind that he was a robot because everyone would think it was a costume. It wasn't much of a plan, but it wasn't like he had any plans.

But, there was still something tickling the back of his mind about going to New Orleans. Something about the last time he had been there--sometime in the 50s, he thinks? He just can’t seem to remember. All he could remember was the  bayou, that  _ thick  _ New Orleans fog, and the parades.

Wait, parades? Maybe he  _ had  _ been to Mardi Gras before. But The Jon felt like  _ that  _ was something he would’ve remembered, so probably not. Still, he remembered bright lights and large crowds, so what else could it have been? Maybe they played a show there--yes, that sounds right. He was probably just remembering a show they had done.

The Jon moved away from the window to the other cars and looked outside. If all went well he would be in New Orleans by tomorrow. The Jon sighed. He wasn't really sure what he was going to do after Mardi Gras. Luckily he didn't need to eat, so he guessed he could just perform on the streets for a little while, like he did back in Balboa park. Except, back then, he had his brothers and a home to go back to.

The Jon sighed and hit his head lightly with his hand. "I've got to stop thinking like that. I don't need any of that anymore. I can make it on my own." His rat friend gnawed at his pant leg and he patted it on the head.

Just then, the train sputtered a bit. The Jon looked around in confusion for a moment but lets it go. It was probably nothing. Then it happened again. Soon after there was a loud crash and then the train stopped moving. Something was wrong. The Jon put his little rat friend on a box. "Stay here little buddy, I'll go see what's up."

The Jon went over to the door of the train car. Once again he peeked through the window. He couldn't see much. But there were a lot of people. A few we're standing up and seemed to be wondering what was going on.

However, The Jon knew that he couldn't go into any of the other cars, someone would see him. And if anyone saw him he would no doubt get arrested and either be returned to Peter or make a quick stop at FBI headquarters and be returned to Peter in pieces. Both options did not seem very favorable to The Jon.

Just then, the overhead speaker came online. "Attention passengers. There is going to be a slight delay as the train seems to have...er...broken down. No worries though! Someone will come to help us within the next four to six hours." The Jon could hear loud yells of protest from the other cars.

The Jon could just get off the train here, and walk to New Orleans. It shouldn't be very far and The Jon had more stamina then the average human, so he didn't mind walking. But he couldn't just leave all these people stranded out here! He had to help them.

The Jon then did something that was rather stupid. He opened the door to the train car and hopped out into the ground. He ducked under the windows so no one could see him, then ran to the front of the train and into the front car where the engine was.

He hopped into the car, and he saw the conductor jump at the sight of him. "Er, sorry. I'm here to help!”

The conductor remained in a stunned silence.

"So what seems to be the problem?"

The conductor shrugged nervously.

The Jon sighed. "Fine then, be that way. Just let me have a look at it." The conductor nodded and opened a compartment. Inside The Jon could see parts of the train's inner workings.

The Jon had remembered some of this from his training in the wars. He could fix this. But he didn't have much time, he didn't want anyone to know he was in here, at least until he had finished fixing the train. The Jon stood up and turned to the conductor. He waved his hands in the air. "Don't panic! I think I can fix this! Just, gimme a second!"

The conductor nodded and was still very confused. The Jon sighed. Sometimes humans were really stupid. He pulled out some of his tools from the pouch on his back and got to work.

\--

The Jon sighed in relief as he duct taped the last pipe closed. This wasn't really a permanent fix, but it would get the train to its destination in one piece. The train sputtered a bit and began to move again. The Jon couldn't help but feel a bit proud of himself. Maybe he could do something right after all.

The Jon went back into the area with the crowd to tell them that he had fixed the problem. But as soon as he entered the area a woman screamed. He was puzzled until he looked down at himself. His face was no longer a shiny brass, but covered with oil and soot. His wig was tangled and dirty and his clothes were ripped and covered in mud and oil. Additionally, the plume of steam surrounding him didn't exactly help anything. He was not the prettiest robot at the moment.

He looked at the faces of the passengers. They were all horrified. One yelled "What is that thing?" And another, "Did it sabotage the train?" And "Look! its covered in smoke! Did it start a fire!" They all began crowding around The Jon, pushing him around. The Jon didnt really like huge crowds, especially when he was alone. And what made it worse was that he couldn't touch anyone without the accusation of being hostile. Being a robot sure did suck at times like this.

"Excuse me--" The Jon choked out. No one heard him. Why couldn't Pappy have built him with a louder voice?

The Jon was backed into a corner. Literally. The angry passengers had backed him up against the side of the train, where he accidentally pushed open the door. The Jon looked out the door.

The train was going over a bridge. A very high bridge.

"It's trying to push us out of the train!" Someone yelled. This was silly, The Jon thought. It was obvious that opening the door was an accident on The Jon's part, and that he was in more danger of falling out then any of the passengers. And besides, he had just saved them!

Several passengers began pushing him out the door, however it was rather difficult to push a robot anywhere. The Jon still thought this was annoying and was finding it harder to keep his balance.

Normally, all the Walter bots weighed around a ton, but while powered on, they have suspension settings to keep them from breaking through floors. The Jon’s were turned up the highest, making him the lightest, so he could jump around on stage. The Jon scolded himself,  _ why  _ did he go and do that?

The Jon quickly thought of all his options, stay, get yelled at for a few more hours, and get arrested as soon at the train stopped, or fall, like he was going to fairly soon anyway. On one hand, if he jumped, he would probably die in the fall. On the other hand, if he stayed and got arrested, the police knew he belonged to Walter Robotics, so they would take him home. He didn't want to go home.

The Jon had half decided, half been decided for, that he was going out the train. He was going to try and grab the bridge on his way down and walk to New Orleans from there.

He stepped out and began falling. He scrambled in the air and tried to grab the track.

He didn't quite make it.

It was sort of a surreal feeling, falling for that long, knowing that there was very little chance that he would survive when he finally came in contact with the ground. Just another mess up on his part to add to the list.

Maybe he would just smash to bits, right there. And maybe that would be the end of him.

And maybe that was for the best.


	6. Prelude to a Dream

The Jon fell onto the hard ground with a sickening crunch. A powerful wave of pain jolted through him as he let out a loud screech that was caught short as his cracked neck plates collapsed in on his voice box.

He laid on the ground, in immense pain, which only got worse as time went on. He wasn't supposed to survive that fall. He was suppose to have shattered to pieces. He didn't know what to do now.

The Jon didn't know how long he had been laying there until a vulture swooped down and landed next to him. It pecked at his wires until it realized that they held no food.

"No...Mr. Vulture...fly away." The Jon whispered. His voice couldn't get any louder. "Don't eat me...I’ll hurt your insides..." The vulture blinked and pulled out a gear from The Jon's arm, causing him to gasp in pain, before flying away.

The Jon attempted to survey the damage. He was sitting in a puddle of oil and everywhere hurt and he was only being held together by a few wires. His back and chassis had broken his fall for the most part, so his legs were relatively alright, apart from a few dents and scratches.

He looked over at his arms. One of them was alright, save a broken elbow joint. It made his movements jerky and imprecise, but he could still move it. The other one, which had taken the brunt of the fall...didn't really look like an arm anymore. The Jon couldn't move it at all, and knew that if he was to sit up, his arm would probably fall off. His head seemed to be okay, or at least, he thought it was. He had a bad headache but he assumed that it was nothing serious. His neck had collapsed in on itself, but he could still partially breathe in order to get air to cool his greatly overheating boiler.

He unbuttoned his shirt with his good arm and felt his chassis, it was overheating and a few of his parts were sticking out at odd angles. His hips were just about being held to him just about solely by his pants and suspenders. Water was leaking out of a crack in his boiler and oil was leaking out of his crushed arm. The Jon was relieved to find that his hot dog was fine and his koi was still alive and swimming.

The Jon took deep breaths in a futile attempt to cool his boiler. He reached for his pouch with his good arm to pull out some tools but it occurred to him that in his current state he couldn't quite fix himself. He could only really move one arm and even that was a hassle with his broken elbow joint.

The Jon wanted to go home.

Or rather, he wanted his brothers to find him and tell him that he would be okay. He wanted Michael to come and fix him and make the pain go away. He would promise to never do anything wrong again. But, his brothers weren't coming, and he doubted that they were even looking for him and were probably glad to have him gone. Which meant that The Jon had to suck it up and fix himself.

He began to fix his arm to the point where it wouldn't fall off when he stood up, but he still couldn't move it. He pulled out his roll of duct tape and patched up the hole in his boiler, even though he knew that it was a temporary fix. At least the water would stop leaking out. He then wrapped his entire chassis in duct tape to keep himself from breaking in two as he walked. He used the oil can he had brought to replace the oil he had lost in his arm. Then he duct taped his arm to his chassis to keep it from swinging around. He took a few more deep breaths to try and cool his boiler and stood up. He noticed that there was a big puddle of splattered oil and a few miscellaneous wires and gears where he had fallen. He hoped that not cleaning that up wouldn't come back to bite him, but he was still in intense pain. The Jon took a few steps and collapsed once again.

_ No!  _ He thought to himself,  _ I can't give up yet! I have to show the others that Im not just some screw up! _ The Jon stood up once more and limped across the countryside, praying he was going in the right direction.

\--

Rabbit had locked himself in his room after what he had done. For the entire next day, no one could get him to come out.

Rabbit sat on his bed, in silence. His thoughts loud in the Walter Manor wifi.

_ It's my fault _

_ I drove Jon away _

_ I hurt Spine _

_ It's all my fault _

Rabbit glanced at the crack in his wall where The Spine had hit it. Rabbit sighed. He wasn't sure how hard he had hit The Spine. Or even if The Spine was still alive. Thoughts of losing both his brothers in the same day made him sick.

\--

Meanwhile, down in one of Peter's work rooms. The Spine came online for the first time since yesterday. As he awoke, he found Peter standing next to him.

"Ah, there you are. Sure did sleep longer than I thought you would."

The Spine touched his face, "What happened?"

"Rabbit gave ya a little bonk on the old noggin. But he was just upset, so don't blame him. He's blaming himself enough already."

"How serious was it?"

Peter waved his hand in the air nonchalantly, "Nothing serious, the damage was mostly superficial. But...some adjustments did need to be made. You may want to look at yourself now."

The Spine picked up a nearby mirror and stared at it. Black lines riddled his face and neck. He touched his face once more, as if to check that the image was real.

This was odd. The Spine wasn't use to having a new face. Rabbit changed faces almost every day, and even The Jon had had his fair share of face plate upgrades. But, since The Spine's 50's government upgrade, his design had stayed mainly the same, and he had gone through little changes.

But he couldn't think about that now. He had to check on Rabbit.

The Spine sighed and looked up at Peter. "Thank you for repairing me."

Peter nodded, "Not a problem."

The Spine turned to walk back, but Peter called out to him, “Uh--Spine, wait.”

“Yes Peter?”

“I know this new faces of yours doesn’t look quite as human as the old one, and I know how much important that is to you. If you give me some time, maybe I could…”

“No, Peter, don’t worry about me.” The Spine said, without smiling, “My old face--and the memories associated with it--is in the past now. Nowhere to look but forward.”

Peter nodded and let The Spine go, but he still remained worried about him.

The Spine, upstairs, walked up to Rabbit's room, finding Paige standing outside the door. "Come on Rabbit! You can't just stay in there forever!"

"Y-y-yes I can."

Paige sighed and spotted The Spine. "Spine! You're okay!"

The Spine smirked and nodded, "Yeah, Peter told me the hit wasn't all that bad, and I just needed a few face plate adjustments. I was just in stasis for most of today."

Paige smiled, "Well that's good, but can you tell that to Rabbit? He hasn't come out of here all day."

The Spine nodded and knocked on the door. "Rabbit? Open up or I'll break the lock."

"...Spine? Is that you? You're okay?"

"Yes Rabbit. Now come on out."

After a moment, Rabbit unlocked the door and opened it a crack. He bit his lip once he noticed The Spine's new face. What he said next shocked The Spine a little, "You don't look human no more."

"I never looked human."

"Yes you did. You were all silver, but you looked human. And I know that...looking human meant a lot to you."

"It's alright. I don't mind. Honest. Now come on out and let's have some ice cream, okay?"

Rabbit looked unsure and still a bit guilty, but agreed and came out of his room.

Just then, they heard Steve's ring voice from downstairs.

"Rabbit! The Spine! Michael's back! He thinks he knows where The Jon is!" Rabbit and The Spine exchanged a surprised look and ran down the stairs as fast as they could. When Rabbit reached the one man band, he grabbed the collar of his shirt and shook him. "Where's The Jon? Do you really know where he is Michael? D-do ya?"

"Rabbit, Rabbit! Stop!" Michael said and Rabbit stopped shaking him. Michael coughed. "I don't know for sure. I ran into a women in town that said that she saw him go into a the train station, and that he was headed to New Orleans! If he actually went through with it he should be there by now."

Everyone looked a bit surprised. New Orleans? That's practically across the country. They were expecting The Jon to be still in the general area of San Diego.

Rabbit looked questionably at The Spine. "New Orleans? Why would The Jon go there? He hasn't been there in over...thirty years I think?"

The Spine thought for a moment and scratched his head. "I'm not sure, but then again I'm not sure about a lot of things The Jon does. Who knows? Maybe he wanted to sing on his own in a Marti Gras parade. Or maybe he just wanted to see the 'pretty lights' that he saw last time we were there."

Rabbit let go of Michael. "Does that mean we can go look for him? And Hatchworth won't have to replace him?"

"Well, we should have Peter fix Hatchworth anyway. He's probably sick of the vault by now. As for The Jon, it's too late to go all the way across the country right now, we should wait until tomorrow."

Rabbit nodded and hugged Michael, "Thanks a bunch Mista Reed! Once we get The Jon back and we knock some sense into him, he's gonna thank you a lot too--" Rabbit's enthusiasm disappeared as his gaze locked to the T.V. playing in the distance.

Though the volume was low, Rabbit could make out the words "Reports in northern Louisiana show that a train was saved from nearly crashing with a fine young man with a wrench and some talent. However, that man just happened to be a robot!"

"It can't be..." The Spine muttered.

"Steve? Turn that up..." Rabbit said quietly,

Steve grabbed the remote off the table and turned up the news station.

"...the robot was later to be identified as one of the singing Walter automatons, that have caused their fair amount of trouble in the 1900's. This robot was named 'The Jon'." A picture of a robot appeared on the screen. It's date was some time in the 90's. Though the golden locks were a bit shorter and faceplates a bit outdated, but there was no doubt that it was The Jon.

"We found him!" Michael smiled.

"Unfortunately, reports have shown that due to a confusion on the train, the passengers began attacking the robot, causing it to jump off of the train into the cavern below."

The smiles on the band's faces instantly disappeared. Steve turned to the others. "Maybe...?"

The Screen showed a helicopter flying over the cavern. It zoomed on a black smudge inside the cavern.

"The fall was estimated to be a bit under 300 feet to the solid rock floor below, and although no body has been discovered, with this overhead view of what appears to be a splattered robot, I think it's safe to say that it is no longer operational."

Steve paused the TV on the picture of the black oily smudge. It was really blurry, and you couldn't quite make out the shape of a body, but it was all they needed.

The Spine turned to the others. Sam and Steve remained silent, and Michael had turned very pale. The Spine slowly turned to Rabbit. He appeared to still be smiling, although black tears were forming in his eyes. He just stood there, frozen, occasionally twitching and letting out a strange buzzing noise.

"...Rabbit? Are you alright?"

Rabbit remained frozen but let out a loud sputtering noise. His head slowly turned toward The Spine. "Th'Spine?"

"Yes?"

"What happened?"

"Well Rabbit, I'm afraid that it was stated that some humans pushed The Jon into a large cavern, which you cannot get into without climbing, which is very dangerous."

"Then he'll just climb out, right? And we'll go get him tomorrow, like we planned. Nothing's changed, right?"

"Um, well, I...*ahem* The Jon is..." The Spine found that he couldn't finish that sentence.

Rabbit stood up immediately, "N-n-no--! W-w-we have to go get h-h-him!"

Rabbit was getting emotional and sputtering and overheating. The Spine grabbed his shoulders and held him still.

"Rabbit, relax."

"N-nnnnnnnnnnno!" Rabbit sputtered as he slumped over and powered down, much like he usually did when he sang the song Honeybee.

"Michael?" The Spine turn to the one man band. He jumped at the mention of his name.

"Wh-what?"

The Spine gestured to Rabbit.

"Oh...right." Michael went over to Rabbit and began to reload his system, as he usually did. Rabbit awoke no longer yelling in denial, but still ever warm. The Spine pulled him into a hug. Halfly to comfort him, halfly to keep him from bursting. Rabbit let out a big puff of steam and began to cool down, oily tears streaming down his face and onto the back of The Spine's jacket.

"He's gone...He's really gone..." Rabbit muttered in between sobs. The Spine patted his back. Time to get to work on Hatchworth.


	7. Bleak Horizon

The moon was high in the sky. The air was cool on The Jon's warm face. He stumbled as he walked, held together just about entirely by duct tape and his suspenders. He tripped and fell to the ground. "No...I'm so close....I can't quit now." He began crawling, until he reached the edge of the city nearby. He propped himself up against the side of a building and stared at the street in front of him.

The Jon felt the duct tape fall away from the crack in his boiler and the last of his water leak to the ground.

So this is how The Jon's story would end. After all the wars, after everything he'd seen. All his stories would die with him, at the side of a building somewhere in south Louisiana.

He had failed. He couldn't survive on his own, and he will probably just rust at the side of this building until he was taken apart and sold for spare parts.

A newspaper blew over The Jon's face. The title New Orleans News was printed on the cover. The Jon didn't really care.

Wait, New Orleans News? The Jon smiled as tears streamed down his eyes, he had made it. He felt himself succumb to the pain as the last of the water in his boiler leaked out and he powered off.

\--

A poor old man with a cane was taking a walk. He was looking for some spare parts to repair and sell, as he usually did this time of day.

A vulture flew overhead. The old man knew that that particular vulture had been his friend for a long time. It had led him to big machines he could sell for parts in exchange for a little food. It flew down beside him and dropped a small brass gear by his feet. "What's this? Looks pretty expensive. Did you find something good?" The vulture flew up into the sky and the man began to follow it.

After a while, the vulture began circling the side of an old run down convenience store. The old man looked around for anything useful that he could sell.

It was about then that the old man sighted a glimmer in the morning light. When he approached it he noticed that the glimmer was the face of a metal man."Nah, can't be. Must be some ol' fella in a costume down on his luck."

However, upon further examination, he discovered that it was in fact a real life automaton. He prodded it with his cane a few times. At first it remained still, as if frozen in time. "Ah, totally gone. Guess I can't sell it whole. oh well, I could probably get a few bucks if I sell it part by part."

The old man then kicked the machine. It was  _ heavy _ ! The old man would have to make a couple trips if he was going to get the whole thing.

But just then, the bot made a low grinding noise and the man jumped back. The robot then made a loud sputtering noise and a bright blue light radiated from its chest. It uttered the words "System reboot" in such a perfect automatonic tone the man assumed it must have been a recording and not the actual bot talking. The robot shuddered and it's eyes glowed a dim but brilliant blue. It raised its hand to the man. "P-p-please....help me....." before returning to a sort of sleep mode.

The old man noticed that while the robot was in sleep mode, it had a suspension system, making it much lighter. To the old man’s relief, it seemed he could pick him up without having to take him apart. He rushed back over to the convenience store, and soon returned with an old shopping cart to carry the robot on. It was quite a chore to get him inside, especially for an old man like himself. He wheeled the broken bot back to his home in the deep bayou. He had been a mediocre mechanic back in his youth, and hoped that he could help this poor boy.

The old man took off the robot's clothes and opened it's chest. As he examined it, he noticed that it was powered by steam and some type of energy that he could never even begin to comprehend. Thankfully, he wouldn't need to, as it's power core was unharmed. He repaired it's crushed arm as best he could and replaced the broken boiler.

The rest of the robots machinery was pretty run of the mill, except that, there wasn't much of it. Aside from the boiler and power core, there was nothing in this robots chassis apart from a large container of some sort. He pried it open with a screwdriver and stared inside. It was nothing but a hot dog and what appeared to be a glowing koi fish, flopping endlessly inside the void of the robots chassis. The old man closed the container and decided not to open it again.

After a while longer of research mixed with guessing, the old man had entirely fixed the automation. Or at least, he thought he had. The old man braced himself as he got some water to start up the machine.

He poured the water inside the robots boiler and was about to turn him on, when he realized that he hasn't quite thought of what to do when the robot turned on again. What would it do? What was it suppose to do? Would it attack him? Was it some kind of military drone? No...the old man thought. The government wouldn't make anything like this. It's too...old looking.

The old man sighed deeply. Awaiting whatever was to happen as he flipped the switch on the back of the robots neck.


	8. Ju Ju Magic

The Jon woke up on a table. He sat up. He could sit up. His chest no longer hurt. He was dressed in new clothes, and was missing his hat. The Jon looked around, mildly frightened. "Hello?" He called. He hugged his knees.

A voice appeared around him, accompanied by an old man. The Jon jumped when he first saw him. 

"Now, now, my boy, there's nothing to be scared of."

The Jon looked up at the man before him. There was something very odd about him, but The Jon couldn't quite place what it was. He was fairly old and had very dark skin. He looked friendly, and too elderly to be of any danger to him. But, he definitely wasn't your average old man.

"Good morning, my boy. How are you feeling?" He said with a smile. The old man's smile, although good-hearted, gave The Jon the willies.

"Um...alright I guess."

The old man slapped his hand to his forehead. "Oh, what am I thinking! This is probably a big shock to you, finding yourself in a strange place with a strange man.”

He held out his hand to shake, and smiled a chilling smile at The Jon. "The name's Gorie."

The Jon found himself very nervous for some reason, but shook his hand nonetheless.

"You'll find all of your clothes hanging outside to dry, sorry but they were filthy when I found you and I just had to give them a wash so I lent you some of my son's old clothes. I like your suspenders by the way. Used to have a pair just like them...a long time ago."

"Is my hat okay? My Pappy gave me that hat an even longer time ago."

"Don't worry son, it's fine. And you are welcome to use my phone to alert your Pappy of where you are."

The Jon looked confused. He knew there was something very wrong. "I...don't...remember..." He whispered.

Gorie looked a bit shocked, but he understood. "Ah, well, I felt like that might have happened. You don't remember anything?"

The Jon shook his head.

"Ah. Well, that may be due to the fact that when I found you you were just about scrap metal! Can you remember anything at all?"

The Jon thought. "A few things...I remember...I ran away...came here...to sing in Mardi Gras?"

"Oh, well I'm sorry son, but Mardi Gras was yesterday. You slept right through it."

The Jon's face sank. "Oh, well, alright. But I don't really have much of a plan, and I don't have anywhere else to go..."

Gorie patted him on the back and smiled. "Well you can stay here until you think of something."

The Jon seemed unsure. "Well...alright. Thank you but...how did I get here?"

"My dear boy, don't you remember even that? I found you on the side of a building, dead as a doormat. And you woulda stayed that way if I didn't work some magic on ya."

The Jon was in awe, "Magic?"

The old man chuckled "Well not real magic of course...haven't used none of that in years...after all I'm just an old man with a couple of tools!"

The Jon looked shocked. "Oh! Well, uh, thank you anyway!"

"No problem lad! So, mind telling an old man what exactly you were doing out there in such bad shape?"

The Jon frowned. "I don't remember...I just remember that I ran away from my brothers." He repeated.

"Don't tell me your own brothers did this to you!"

The Jon thought for a moment. "I'm not sure, but I remember they were awfully mean to me before I left."

Gorie looked at him simpathetically. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an old black and white photograph. "I found this with you when I picked you up. Mean anything to ya?"

The Jon took out the photo, which was slightly stained with oil. It showed a robot that he assumed to be himself, despite a few differences, and a man in his early 30's. The man had pure white skin and black hair with a few streaks of some other color in it that he couldn't quite make out. He was dressed in a white lab coat and had his arm around the robots shoulders.

"I'm not sure...but I think this might be my Pappy." The Jon went to hand Gorie back the photo.

"Nah son, it's yours. You keep it. It'll give you a little something to remember your past by. Remember the old you. The old...what did you say your name was again?"

"I...don't remember."

"Oh?" Gorie picked up The Jon's top hat from a nearby desk and examined it. "Well I've noticed that the inside of your hat says Jon. So I guess we'll just have to call you Jonny the new Suspender Man."

"New?" The Jon was puzzled,

"They used to call me Suspender Man back in the day...but that was a long time ago. Hey son, can you play the banjo?"

"Erm, is it anything like the mandolin?" He gasped, "That's right, I can play the mandolin!"

Gorie laughed, "Well I'm sure it can't be too different. But we can worry about that later." He placed the hat on The Jon's head. "I'll let you rest some more. I'll be in the next room if you need me."

"Um, Mister Gorie sir? One more thing..."

"Yes lad?"

"Am I a robot?"

"Yes." Gorie said plainly.

"Oh, alright." Jon said as the old man walked out of the room.

\--

Surprise! Didn't expect the real suspender man to show up did you? Buuuuut he's retired now. No more evil (was he even evil?) mind-controlling banjo magic so don't worry. More on his story in later chapters.


	9. The Suspender Man

Suuuuuuuper long chapter ahead, but I couldn't find anywhere to break it off that wouldn't have made the story seem unnatural.

\--

A year had passed since Jon had been found by Gorie.

"This is it son, what you've been waiting for all this time! Mardi Gras comes back tonight!"

Jon smiled excitedly. He had never really figured out why, but when Gorie had found him, all he wanted to do was to get away from his brothers and perform at Mardi Gras. He wasn't entirely sure what his brothers had done to him, but he knew it was bad. However, since he had missed Mardi Gras, he became a street performer and made a bit of money, which he shared with Gorie, who had become a great friend of his.

"Come here Jonny, I'll redo your makeup before the show." Jon nodded and sat in front of Gorie. He touched his cold hard face with his makeup brush. Although Jon was a robot, he and Gorie had mutually decided that he should pretend to be a human when performing. He wasn't sure what would happen if the public  found out that he was a robot. He didn't mind pretending to be a human though. He was just happy to be living with Gorie and loved singing and playing his banjo. Oh, and his suspenders. The local people who heard him perform didn't know his name, and just called him "The Suspender Man." Jon liked that. He thought it gave him sort of an air of mystery.

"Alright, finished! Go get em' Suspender Man!"

He patted him on the back and handed him his banjo. Jon smiled in return, "I won't be out too late! And I'm sure to get a lot of coins today, so I'll bring back something nice for you to eat!"

Then he walked out the door and onto the porch. He breathed in the smell of the thick bayou around him. It was the only home he could remember have knowing.

He walked down the stairs and onto the ground. He hopped from one stone to the next. Usually he would just walk straight through the mud, but he didn't want to get his shoes dirty today.

As he walked into town, everyone looked his way, cheering him on. They called out, "Hey, Suspender Man!" and "Suspender man! Over here!" one man tossed a coin into Jon's hand. "Play us the two cent show!" Jon smiled and strummed his banjo. He liked it there. He felt as if he had finally belonged somewhere.

\--

When the Steam Powered Giraffe had come to New Orleans for a Mardi Gras show, they had long since given up that they would ever see The Jon again, and figured, as much as they had hated to admit it, that their beloved brother had fallen apart somewhere, never to be found. The entire band had an unspoken uneasiness about coming to a place so close to where The Jon had died, and The Spine had made a mental note that if he was ever to come across the rusting chassis of their departed brother while in New Orleans, to not let Rabbit or anyone else see it.

However, they were glad to have Hatchworth back. Since he had been in the vault for so long, he hadn't really had the life experience that his older siblings possessed, but that was okay. He was a bit quiet at first, but once getting the hang of...well, being alive again, he seemed to brighten up.

The entire band had played a very good show in the New Orleans parade, but the crowd seemed uninterested in them. After the show, Rabbit came up to The Spine on the tour bus. "I'm going out for a walk."

The Spine nodded. "Alright, but don't be out too late. We have another show tomorrow and I don't want you falling into stasis in the middle of it like you did last time."

Rabbit scoffed as she put on a jacket. "I doubt anyone would even notice. Yeesh, New Orleans is a tough crowd."

She scampered off the bus and out into the dusk.

Rabbit was walking on the edge of town, very close to the deep bayou. The sun had already set and Rabbit was whistling and letting her thoughts wander. She turned her head to gaze at the violet fog and sighed. "Getting back to the bus is going to be pretty hard in all this fog. This... _ purple _ fog"

"Howdy stranger!" A man holding a banjo appeared before Rabbit seemingly out of nowhere. Rabbit jumped back but relaxed her guard. She knew this man meant no harm. The man was wearing a very ruddy looking black outfit, with bright red suspenders. He had a dusty black top hat and a banjo slung around his shoulders. He had a light accent, like he had just acquired it recently, and had shoulder length light brown curly hair that was very tangled. Rabbit noticed he also had bright blue eyes.

Rabbit smiled, the man seemed sort of...familiar.

"Hello there!" Rabbit gave her usual charming smile and held out her hand to shake. The man shook it vigorously. That was odd, Rabbit thought, usually no one can shake hands with a robot like that. But, she shrugged it off.

"I like your Mardi Gras costume! Very original."

Rabbit made an irritated face. She knew she hadn't gotten much attention in their performance a few hours ago, but really? It's not like she blended in with the crowd. Well, maybe she did around here. "It's not a mask. I'm R-R-R-Rabbit. The singing musical automaton. I was in a parade earlier."

The man seemed taken aback by the fact that he was a robot, but shrugged it off. The man tipped his hat. "Well nice to meet you, R-R-R-Rabbit!"

The man winked. Rabbit rolled her eyes, like it wasn't the hundredth time she'd heard  _ that _ one already.

The man thought for a moment, "Oh! I think I saw you play at the parade! You and your friends sure do sing awfully well! But, I'm pretty sure the crowd came to see me, so sorry if I stole some of the attention."

Rabbit was shocked. "The crowd came to see you?" She looked at the man's dirt-covered face and ripped clothes. "No offence, but...why?"

The man's face lit up, that was his cue. "Well I was just heading home for the night, but I guess I can do this one more time." He cleared his throat.

"Mrs. Robot I am a suspender man. And this banjo has shown me the promised land. Now I'll play you a song, but in return, you flip the shiny coin right here in my urn. I'll play you something fine, my music will blow your mind!" He kicked a small dirty looking urn towards Rabbit and wiggled his eyebrows as he smiled a familiar looking goofy smile. Rabbit got sad when she looked at him. She wasn't sure why.

Wait, yes she was. That goofy smile, the bubbly personality, the silly way he threw around his instrument, the top had, the suspenders, and even the golden locks on his head. This man was just about a perfect human The Jon.

Curiosity and pity getting the best of her, and Rabbit checked her pockets for coins. The humans usually didn't let her have money, and Rabbit didn't know how to use it too well. But she did find an oxidizing penny in his pocket. She had picked it up because it reminded her of herself. She flipped it in the man's jar.

The man giggled and began to sing beautifully and strum his banjo in the most heavenly way. He could obviously see why the entire city came to see him. But Rabbit was less focused on the music and more focused on the voice singing it. It was soft, but not quiet. Very similar to his own voice occasionally. She would recognize that voice anywhere. It was the voice of her long lost brother, The Jon.

As soon as the man had finished his song, Rabbits jaw dropped. It was The Jon. She wasn't sure how, but it was. She was sure of it.

The man cracked his neck and smiled at Rabbit. "Honey ya gotta pay for more."

"Th-Th-The Jon! It's you! Why are you all human like?"

The man was confused. "How do you know my name? I don't tell no one! I'm The Suspender Man!"

Rabbit grabbed Jon's slender shoulders. "Know it? Jon! I was there when you got your name!" Jon's face was full of confusion. "Jon! Don't you know who I am? I'm your sister! Rabbit!"

He scratched his head, "What?"

Rabbit rolled her eyes, "Well, you used to think of me as your brother, but I'm your sister. I know I look different, but don’t you recognize my voice?"

Jon's face soon became full of fear as he backed away from Rabbit. "You--you can't be my sister! I--I--I ran away from my family! I never want to see them again!"

Jon couldn't let her find out that he was a robot as well. It would confirm to her that she was his sister, and she would take him back to wherever he lived before. Jon didn't want to go back. Jon turned to run away but Rabbit grabbed his wrist. Her face turned serious and full of concern. "Jon...what happened to you this past year? I heard that you fell off that train, and now you look like this..."

Jon started to panic, "I-I don't remember anything my past, but I remember my family--they hurt me real bad so I ran away!"

Rabbit looked at the man for a long time. They were both feeling a swirl of emotions. Rabbit was sure this was The Jon. It had to be. She slowly grabbed Jon's other wrist, not wanting to alarm him any more.

"Jon, I'm going to take you back to the bus, okay? Back to The Spine and Hatchy and Steve. Your friends. Okay?"

"No!" Jon tried once again to get free, but simply wasn't strong enough. Rabbit silently thanked Pappy for making her the stronger of the two. Rabbit threw Jon over her shoulder, who was kicking and screaming like a child, and rushed back to the bus.

By the time they got to where the bus was parked, Jon had stopped struggling and went limp, more bored than upset at that point.

Rabbit burst through the door of the bus. "Spine! Hatchworth! Come quick! I found The Jon!" The Spine and Hatchworth soon appeared at Rabbit sat Jon down on one of the bus seats. He was no longer struggling but he was definitely not pleased with the current situation.

The Spine sighed and rolled his eyes. "Rabbit, this man may look like The Jon, but there's one small thing you're missing."

Hatchworth prodded the man. "He's not made of metal." He said. "I may not remember The Jon that much, but I can tell that."

The Spine glared at Rabbit and turned to the man.

The Spine tipped his fedora, "I'm very sorry for my sister sir, we lost our brother in this very city about a year ago, and you reminded her of him."

Then he turned to Rabbit. "And as for you, you know very well that The Jon is most likely....no longer with us."

"No but this IS The Jon! Just listen to him sing!" Rabbit insisted. Jon sat up straight in his chair, clutching his banjo. "No sir you need to give me another coin for me to play!" Despite the situation, Jon's still gotta earn a living.

"Spinnnnnne!" Rabbit pleaded. The Spine sighed and tossed a quarter into the man's hand. "If you don't mind?" he asked as Jon smiled and picked up his banjo. He played a beautiful tune, his voice dancing on the notes of his banjo.

When he had finished, The Spine did have to admit that even he did find this to be a pretty unlikely coincidence. Especially since he was in New Orleans, one of the closest towns to where The Jon had fallen off that train. He was about to ask the man a few questions, but Hatchworth was closely examining Jon's banjo. "Sir, if you do not mind me asking, what is that instrument?"

"Er, a banjo."

"But Mr. Reed had a banjo. It didn't look like that." Hatchworth said.

Jon rolled his eyes. "Fine, you caught me, it's a banjolin. Sounds like a banjo but played like a mandolin. I can't play the banjo. Never got the hang of it. But what does this have to do with anything?"

The Spine moved uneasily, "Excuse me sir, but if you don't mind me asking, have you suffered any memory loss recently?"

The man looked kind of nervous. "Well, about a year ago, I got hurt real bad. And now I can't really remember much of anything before that." He added awkwardly. "Except, that my family was awfully mean to me, so I ran away from them to come sing in Mardi Gras."

The Spine was taken aback at Jon's story. He was fully convinced. He and Rabbit exchanged glances and looked back at Jon.

"Sir--"

"Call me Suspender Man, it's what everyone 'round these parts does."

"Suspender Man, are you quite certain you're...human?"

_ Oh no, they're on to me,  _ Jon thought to himself. He hoped he was a good actor.  "What kind of question is that? Of course I am!"

The Spine slowly picked up Jon's hand and pricked it with a needle. Nothing came out.

"Ow!" Jon pulled his hand away suddenly.

The Spine tilted his head, "Does that hurt?"

"Of course it does!" Jon exclaimed, "You robots might not understand, but we humans feel pain when we get cut--"

"'We robots' can feel pain as well. However, we do not bleed. Why don't you bleed?"

"Well..."

Hatchworth was quietly examining his head. He then snatched off his hat and wig. "This is fake."

Jon was very embarrassed, "Hey! Okay so I'm not as young as I used to be! So what?" He snatched back his wig and put it back on his head. Human or not, Jon didn't like having his hair snatched off. 

"Thank you Hatchworth, but we have this under control." The Spine paused and his gaze shifted back to Jon. "Please continue."

"Well, er, I..." He said sheepishly.

The three bots looked at each other. It was obvious at this point that this man was The Jon, but now they just had to get him to drop the act.

The Spine sighed, "I'll be right back." he said as he left to go rummage through his things. He soon returned with a jar of makeup remover.

"Why do you have that?" Rabbit yelled. The Spine shot her a glare that was obviously meant to be taken as "Drop it, it doesn't matter."

"Sir," The Spine said while opening the bottle "If this doesn't work then you can leave."

Jon looked a bit unsure but did not protest when The Spine sat down next to him and began rubbing the cream all over his face. Jon looked into The Spine's bright green photoreceptors. Even though he could not remember ever knowing him, for some reason Jon felt safe around him. He felt like he had saved his life more times then he could count. He wondered if he could actually be his older brother somehow. But, he couldn't be, his memories of his brothers were of them being mean to him, and literally beating him to near death.

Er...maybe not actually. Jon thought for a moment, he actually didn't remember that part. He remembered leaving his family because they were mad at him, and being hurt very badly. Maybe the two events were entirely unrelated.

It was about that time when The Spine finished his work and smirked. "Now look."

The Spine put a mirror in front of The Jon. It clearly showed his robotic face. He touched his face, he wasn't used to seeing it without makeup. He then turned toward the others. "Fine, you got me, I'm a robot. Happy now?"

Rabbit kicked The Jon as hard as she could. "Jon! Why would you lie to us about this? We thought you were dead, do you know how worried we were? How could you be so stupid?"

"Ahh!" The Jon yelled and crawled under a bus seat, hugging his knees. "Please don't hurt me!"

"Rabbit," The Spine said to her in a stern tone, "Did it ever occur to you that perhaps The Jon was telling the truth about his memory, and all he can remember is us being mean enough to him to make him flee across the country and nearly get killed?"

Realization dawned on Rabbit. "So...hitting him isn't the best idea?"

"I think so, yes." The Spine said, tauntingly.

The Jon was very frightened.   _ Gorie...I have to get to him somehow... I have to tell him that my family found me and that we have to hide somewhere before they can hurt me again.  _ The Jon took a deep breath, summoned all his courage, and made a break for the door.

"Stop him!" The Spine yelled. Rabbit ran over to block his path and Hatchworth grabbed him and held his arms back.

"Let me go!" The Jon yelled.

"The Jon!" Rabbit yelled, "We don't want to hurt you! Promise!"

"You just kicked me!"

Rabbit smiled guiltily. "Hehe...yeah, sorry about that."

The Jon tried to break free but Hatchworth's grip was just too strong for him. "Stop it The Jon! You used to be my big brother! We do not appreciate you running away!"

He stopped struggling and put his head down. He had lost. "Alright, I'll come with you, I'll do whatever you want. But, you have to take me back to the old man, just so he knows what happened to me."

The Spine sighed. "The Jon, we're not kidnapping you. If you had your memory, you would come with us willingly."

The Jon looked at The Spine, Rabbit, and Hatchworth. "You know...I don't quite remember my family, but I remember that I left them. Why would I do that if you were nice to me like you claim to be?"

Rabbit and The Spine looked down. "Well..." Rabbit began awkwardly, "You had a bit of an accident before you left, and m-m-may have overheard Peter talkin about how shuttin' you down--but we weren't actually gonna do it! We promise!"

Jon's eyes widened. "Like, turn me off? But why?"

The Spine looked a bit guilty, "We thought..." The Spine paused, looking for the right words.

"We thought you had a couple a screws loose up in your ol' noggin!" Rabbit blurted out.

"Yes, thank you Rabbit. Before, you were very...odd. Sometimes you would just, say things, that didn't really make sense. We thought you were and maybe even a bit childish, despite your old age, and we wanted to maybe see if we could fix you, if you were broken. We were never really going to shut you down for good."

"Wha? How old am I?"

"You should be about 116 now."

The Jon's gasped. "Whoa! Sure wasn't expecting that one..."

The Spine put his hand on The Jon's shoulder. "We know this is probably a lot for you. When Steve and the Walter Girls get back we'll see what we can do about your memory." The Jon nodded slightly and Hatchworth put him down on the seat to wait for the others to come back.


	10. Little Birdie

Gorie was pacing across the floor. He was worried about Jon. He had promised not to be out too late.

"Now, now! You worry too much." He said to himself. "It's Mardi Gras! The night hes been waiting for this whole year! He probably just lost track of time..."

He glanced at the clock.  11:30. Just then a vulture flew in close to the house and pecked at the window. Gorie opened it, "What is it boy? Can it wait until tomorrow? I'm waiting for Suspender Man to get back."

The vulture dropped a feather on the windowsill. It was obvious that this wasn't a feather from his last meal, but in fact a blue artificial feather from Jon's hat.

When he saw it, Gorie immediately picked up his cane and walked out of his old house to look for him.

\--

The Jon wasn't sure what to feel right now. His siblings seemed nice enough, but...he wasn't entirely sure he could trust them. He just wanted to go home.

After a while, the bus door opened. Steve and the Walter Girls had returned from the store down the street. "Hey everybody!" Steve called out, "I got ice cream!" He walked into the bus and over to where the robots were sitting to give them their frozen treat when he noticed The Jon. He stopped and turned to The Spine, "Is that...?"

The Spine nodded.

Steve nodded silently and walked cautiously over to The Jon. "The Jon?"

Jon looked up at Steve but said nothing.

"Hey Jon, come on! Say somethin to your old buddy Steve!"

Jon looked confused but remained silent.

"He can't remember anything." The Spine said.

"Really? What happened to him?"

"We dunno, but after taking that fall...it's a wonder h-h-he's even alive." Rabbit said.

"So what do you wanna do?" Steve asked,

"We were thinking of cancelling the show tomorrow and taking him home. Maybe Peter can do something for him." The Spine said, "It's all we really can do."

"Who's Peter?"

"The...er....great great grandson of P-P-Pappy I think?" Rabbit counted generations on her fingers, "He's a pretty cool guy. Kinda weird sometimes though."

The Jon's mouth fell open, "P-Pappy?" he stammered out. He looked to the floor, he could remember Pappy. He could remember his face, his voice, his love for him. "I...think I remember Pappy."

Everyone looked at The Jon. A big smile came across Rabbit's face. "See Jon? I knew ya couldn't forget about Pappy...even if ya forgot about us, you couldn't forget about Pappy."

The Jon looked away. He still wasn't sure how he felt about these people who were apparently his family. "Wait!" The Jon stood up, "Take me back to the old man! Now! So I can say goodbye." he said with a twinge of sadness in his voice.

The Spine rolled his eyes. "Fine, but we want to get back to Walter Manor as soon as possible, so make it quick."

The Jon looked up at them. He didn't think that that would work, "Uh, okay!" He began to skip out of the bus when he was caught by The Spine.

"Not so fast! We're coming with you."

The Jon sighed. "Fine then. Come on, it's kind of a long way, and there's a lot of mud, so watch your step."

The Spine flashed Rabbit an annoyed glance, but followed with Rabbit close behind.

\--

When they arrived at the old house where the old man lived, The Jon knocked on the door. There was no answer.

"He must be asleep." The Jon dug in his pocket and pulled out a key. He then unlocked the door and went inside. It was covered in dust and cobwebs, but had a sort of homey feeling.

Rabbit made a disgusted face, "Yeesh, this is where The Jon's been living?"

The Jon smiled and walked through the door. "I know it may not be much to you city folks, but it's home to me and the old man." He looked around. "Old man! Old man! Where are you? Sorry about coming home so late...I got a little tied up..."

However, soon he realized that there was no one home. Even their semi-domesticated vulture was nowhere to be found. The Jon slapped his hand to his forehead. "Whoops! I forgot to bring back dinner! He must be out gettin something..."

The Spine and Rabbit looked at each other and then at The Jon.

"The Jon, we should get going--"

"Don't call me that! Until I get my memory back I'm Suspender Man...and I'm not leaving yet."

The Spine sighed. "Fine, I suppose we can wait a little longer."

They waited for a few hours. The old man still did not return. Rabbit whispered to The Spine, "Doesn't all this seem a little familiar to you?"

The Spine looked at her, "What do you mean?"

Rabbit shrugged, "I have this really weird deja vu right now. It feels like we've done this all before."

"I'm sure I would recall if I had lost my brother for a year."

"Not that you idiot! I mean this place, and the whole Suspender Man thing. Doesn't it seem a little familiar?"

"Hmm. I see what you mean."

"Hey Jon!" Rabbit called out to him, "This old coot, what's his name?"

"Gorie. Why do you--" The Jon covered his mouth. "No! I didn't mean to say that! He doesn't really want me saying his real name to anyone. I dunno why. So just pretend you didn't hear that."

Rabbit and The Spine looked at each other. That was it. A long time ago, the last time the band came around here, Gorie, the ex-suspender man, had everyone in the town in a brainwashed trance with his music. No one knew if it was magic, or if he was just really good at the banjo, but whatever it was it gave him a lot of power. A little  _ too  _ much power. The whole town was under his thumb. Until one day, he just disappeared with no explanation. People blamed the Steam Man Band, said that they were immune to what Gorie could do and got rid of him. They chased them out of town. But after leaving the crimson red fog of the bayou, none of them could remember what had happened.

"Ah, so that's why we haven't been here in so long..." The Spine muttered to Rabbit. He raised his voice and tried not to let his concern show, "Let's face it The Jon, he's not here, and we can't just wait for him to get back. We have to get your memories back as soon as possible. Time is just making it worse."

"No, we can't go yet! He should have been back by now! He must be in trouble!"

"Jon, no. We have to go. Now."

The Jon sighed and walked outside. He located the log he liked to sit on and took off his suspenders. "Jon, what are you doing?" Rabbit was concerned, The Jon rarely took off his suspenders.

"I have to make sure he knows that I was here." He put his suspenders and his banjo on the log outside Gorie's house and went back to the bus.

\--

Now very long afterward, Gorie and his vulture had returned to his house. He had been searching for Jon for hours, with no luck. He sighed and walked up the walkway to his porch. The vulture cawed and swooped down nearby. Gorie quickly followed it.

The bird had landed on the log that Jon had enjoyed to sit on and sing. Gorie frowned as he saw that Jon's suspenders and banjo were on the log. Gorie picked up the suspenders. Jon had been here. But now he was gone. And he was in trouble.


	11. Make Believe

Very early that next morning, about two days since they left New Orleans, the band had just entered the San Diego area, and had stopped at a gas station. Rabbit and The Spine were still in stasis, and Hatchworth was rummaging through the various items on the bus looking for something to play with. The Walter girls were quietly conversing and stretching their legs outside and The Jon had fallen into stasis while was sulking in the corner. Steve was outside, leaning against the bus, and pulled out his phone.

He quickly dialed a familiar number, and waited. He had an idea that was just crazy enough to work. Just then, the call was answered. "...whazit?"

"Hey, Mike, you there?"

"...ermf? Steve? Tha you?"

"Yeah, sorry for callin’ so early, but we might need your help."

"Who's 'we'?"

"You know who 'we' is."

"What? Why me and not Peter? Are they okay?"

"Nah, they're fine, sorta. You'll see. It's a long story, we'll tell you when we get there, get your tools ready okay?"

"What--I, okay but--"

Steve hung up the phone and went back in the bus.

\--

A few minutes later, the band arrived at Michael Reed's house. Steve called out, "Hey everybody! Wake up! We're at Mike's place!"

Rabbit and The Spine clicked awake. Hatchworth clapped his hands "Yay! We get to visit Mr. Reed!"

Rabbit yawned. "Why we here? Sh-shouldn't we be getting back to Walter Manor?"

Steve scratched the back of his head, "Yeah but, when humans lose their memories, sometimes seeing people who were important to them can make them remember. So maybe Mike can snap Jon out of it."

"We appreciate the idea, but...The Jon is a robot. We don't...work the same way humans do." The Spine said.

Steve shrugged, "Eh, it's worth a shot. And besides, Michael knows the inside of Jon's head better then anyone, so maybe he can fix him anyway."

Rabbit shrugged and The Spine nodded. Steve gave them a thumbs up, "Wait here, I'll tell you when to wake up Jon and bring him over."

The bots nodded as Steve got out of the bus and walked up to Michael's door. Steve knocked on the door and waited. After a few moments Michael answered the door and yawned. He was dressed in sweats, his old mechanic goggles were around his neck and he was sipping a juice box. "Hey! Sorry, I just woke up, so I didn't get dressed yet."

Steve smirked, "Nah it's cool, nice to see you." he said as they bumped fists.

Michael scratched the back of his head, "So...sorry to cut to the chase, but I take it this isn't a friendly visit. What do you need?"

"Right..." Steve raised his voice and turned toward the bus, "Okay guys! Come on over!"

Michael nearly choked on his juice box when he saw The Jon for the first time. He eyes widened as his old friend walked over to his doorstep, led by Rabbit and The Spine. Michael dropped his juice box and stared at him. "J-Jon?" The Jon sort of half smiled nervously. "Yes?" Michael ran over to The Jon and hugged him tightly. The Jon was confused, but did not break away from the hug. After a moment Michael pulled away from him and grabbed his face, "Don't ever run away again, do you hear me? If you do I swear I'll...I don't know what I'll do, but it'll be bad."

The Jon took a step back and tipped his hat, "Um, I'm terribly sorry but, I can't say I know who you are."

Michaels face fell.

The Spine stepped in, "He can't remember anything."

Michael looked at The Spine, then back at The Jon. So that was why Steve had told him to get his tools ready. Michael nodded and his face turned serious. He pointed toward his house, "Jon, get inside and get on that table. I'm going to fix your memory."

"What?"

"Now!"

"Now hold on! I know that you were probably once my friend, but I don't think I'm okay with you opening up my head after I just met you!"

Michael facepalmed, not wanting to deal with this, "Oh Jon, I'm so sorry for this."

"For what?"

"For this." Michael grabbed the back of his neck and flipped his emergency off switch located under the collar of his shirt. The light faded from The Jon's eyes as he began to tumble to the floor before he was caught by The Spine.

The Spine tipped his fedora "Nice to see you, Michael."

"Likewise, you guys. But let's get Jon inside, eh?"

The Spine nodded as he and the others went inside Michaels house. The Spine and put The Jon on the table as Michael came over with his tools.

"Alright Jon," he said as he put on his goggles. "Let's get your memory back."

\--

After a few hours, Michael stopped working on The Jon. He plopped on an armchair with a sigh. "Could you fix him?" Rabbit asked.

"Well, whoever fixed him the first time was either a genius or really really lucky. I tried everything I could, but I couldn't get his memory back."

Everyone's face fell. "Do you at least know if his memories are gone, or just stuck in his head somewhere?" Steve said.

Michael waved his hand in the air. "Yeah, yeah, they're in there. His system crashed. It couldn't take that much emotional and physical trauma in such a short span. Luckily, all of his memory is still saved inside his head. We just gotta get it out. Problem is, he's been like this for a year, and the more time passes the harder it's gonna be to fix him."

"How are we going to fix him then?" The Spine asked. Michael shrugged. "Take him back to Peter like you planned. Despite how well I know The Jon's inner workers, he's better at this then I am, so he might know how to fix this."

Michael walked back over to the table The Jon had been lying on, and powered him on.

The Jon sprang up and looked around, his defense up. Remembering the situation, he relaxed a little, but still seemed pretty uncomfortable.

"I still can't remember anything." He said.

"Yeah, we're going to take you back to Peter. He can probably figure out how to fix you." Michael said, a bit of sympathy in his voice.

The Jon nodded sheepishly and went out the door and back to the bus, closely followed by the others.


	12. Turn Back the Clock

The band arrived at Walter Manor a bit later. Michael and The Spine walked The Jon into Walter Manor as the others helped to unload the bus. The Jon had not put up any sort of fight, but was still displeased with the current situation especially with his new worry that Gorie was in trouble.

As they walked through the doorway, The Spine called out to Peter, "Peter! We're home! Can you come here?"

Soon a man with a keyhole mask appeared before them. "Welcome back boys! Ah, and Mr. Reed I see! Nice to see you again! What is it you--" he stopped when he noticed The Jon.

He walked over to him and simply stared for a long while. After a while he bowed his head. "I'm...sorry. I didn't mean what I said last time I saw you. I never wanted to turn you off. Honestly. It was just a joke. Hehe...that's what I get for trying to be funny. I'll just stick to door puns from now on. Can you please forgive me?"

"Why do you have that mask over your face? Isn't it hard to see with it?"

Peter seemed puzzled. "What? Oh! That's right, you weren't here when I got this. Well I was tinkering with some blue matter, when I had a bit of an accident and, well, burned my face off. But don't worry, I can still see you fine."

The Jon looked thoroughly freaked out. Peter turned to The Spine. "Why does The Jon look thoroughly freaked out?"

"He lost his memory. He doesn't remember ever knowing you."

"Ah." Peter turned back to The Jon, "Well, this is awkward now isn't it? Oh what a shame it is that you can not remember me! You in fact had a hand in raising me! Taught me how to blow bubbles! But, we must see this as a new opportunity! I will teach you how to live your old life! Only this time, you'll do it better! Come The Jon! We have work to--"

"Peter." The Spine stopped him. "We were just hoping you could just get his old memory back."

Peter sighed, "Yes, I suppose I could do that too. Come The Jon, I'll show you to the lab." Peter walked away and gestured for The Jon to follow.

The Jon whispered to The Spine. "You thought I was the weird one?"

The Spine made an embarrassed face, "Can't turn off Peter, and besides, he's harmless, mostly."

\--

"Okay Jon, you can wake up now." The Jon blinked awake. He was lying on a table and saw Michael, Steve, Peter, and his siblings before him. Where was he? He couldn't quite put his thoughts together.

"Jon?" Peter asked, "Do you know who I am?"

The Jon blinked groggily,  "Peter? Is that you?"

Peter nodded "Do you remember anything?"

The Jon wasn't sure, his memories were all there, but all jumbled and hazy, slowly falling into place."I think so, yeah."

"Like what?"

The Jon rubbed his eyes and recalled his protocol reply to that question,"Uh...I'm Walter automaton three, nickname The Jon, built by Colonel Peter A. Walter in 1896, and the youngest robot in the Steam Man Band, now called Steam Powered Giraffe, or, er, I was, but I left."

Everyone sighed in relief.

The Jon stopped rubbing his and bolted upright. "Guys! It's you! You found me!" He looked at Peter, "You're not going to turn me off right?"

Peter chuckled, "If I am then what was the point of fixing you? Welcome back The Jon. We all missed you quite a bit."

The Jon smiled wide and quickly stood up. He pulled everyone into a group hug. "I'm sorry I left! I messed up really bad! And I'm sorry I didn't want to come back with you! Please forgive me!"

Steve chuckled, "It's fine Jon! Really! We're just glad to have you back."

The Jon smiled, then turned to Rabbit. "Rabbit? You look different."

Rabbit looked away, not wanting to have this conversation. "Yeah, er, I never told you but, I'm a girl. So...yeah."

The Jon nodded. "Okay! I like your hair. It's almost as pretty as mine."

"Heh, thanks." Rabbit said, relieved but also annoyed at the backhanded compliment.

The Jon was overcome with joy of seeing his family, but it was very short lived. He noticed Hatchworth, quietly licking an ice cream cone in the corner.

"...Hatchy?" The Jon was surprised to see him.

Hatchworth smiled, "Hello The Jon! Welcome back! I haven't seen you in a few decades!"

The Jon smiled back and waved, "How long have you been out of the vault? Is your core all fixed?"

"Oh yes, Peter the sixth repaired my core shortly after you left so I could replace you in the band!" Hatchworth said, while still sporting a big smile under his ginger mustache. The Jon's smile, however, disappeared. He turned to Rabbit and The Spine.

"You guys...replaced me?" Rabbit scratched the back of her head. "Well...we had to...the band needs a three part harmony and--"

"You'd rather fix Hatchworth's broken power core then come look for me?"

"Jon, please don't overreact." The Spine said, "We had no idea where you'd gone, and Peter was capable of fixing Hatchworth, so it just seemed like the easiest course of action to--"

"To just give up on looking for me? I thought you said that you guys cared that I was gone!"

"Jon!" Michael stepped in, "You fell out of a train! They caught it on camera! We thought you were dead!"

The Jon froze as he remembered the train. And the fall. And that that puddle of oil he didn't clean up probably looked like a splattered robot from up on that bridge. The Jon felt sick.

"Oh...right." He looked at the floor.

"I understand." He turned to Michael. "I'm sorry you thought I was dead, I never meant for all this to get so out of hand..."

Michael hugged The Jon again. "It's okay, stupid! I'm just glad to have you back."

The Jon smiled, “I’ll have to make it up the you somehow. Hm…I’ll tune all your instruments before your next show!”

"Actually, er, I'm not in the band anymore."

“What?” The Jon broke away from the hug, “Why not?”

The Spine put his hand on The Jon’s shoulder, “Jon...there’s a lot you’ve missed this part year. You might want to sit down.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So like, that's the end of the finished chapters I had. Like I still went through them all and fixed a TON but that's where my ideas for plot run out. I still had like...another chapter I started but it's not finished and I don't feel like finishing it lmao. So yeah. The gist of the ending is that The Jon is sad and goes back to live with Gorie but still visits sometimes. Hope u liked this trainwreck.


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